This invention relates to a lever-type connector.
There is known a lever-type connector in which a force for fitting connectors together is lowered (see, Patent Document 1). As shown in FIG. 12, this lever-type connector 500 comprises a housing 501, a wire cover 503 attached to the housing 501, and a lever 505 attached to the housing 501 so as to be pivotally moved between an initial position and a final position. The housing 501 has a pair of rail portions 507 formed respectively at opposite side walls thereof. A first lock recess 509a and a second lock recess 509b are formed in a side wall surface of each rail portion 507, and are spaced a predetermined distance from each other in a right-left direction as shown in FIG. 13. A pair of support shafts 511 for pivotally supporting the lever 505 are provided respectively below the rail portions 507.
When the lever 505 is attached to the housing 501 in such a manner that the lever 505 is laid down to the right side of the housing 501 in its initial position (see FIG. 12), the wire cover 503 is slid in a direction of arrow A from the right side of the housing 501 toward the left side, with its wire lead-out port 513 disposed at the front. Namely, the lever 505 is earlier attached to the housing 501 than the wire cover 503. At this time, sliding claws 515 (see FIG. 14) of the wire cover 503 are fitted respectively into the rail portions 507 of the housing 501, and then the wire cover 503 is slid from the right side toward the left side. Then, lock projections 517 (see FIG. 14) formed respectively at the sliding claws 515 are fitted respectively into the first lock recesses 509a formed at the housing 501, so that the wire cover 503 is locked to the housing 501.
The lever 505 can be attached to the housing 501 in such a manner that the lever 505 is laid down to either of the right side and left side of the housing 501 in its initial position. When the lever 505 is attached to the housing 501 in such a manner that the lever 505 is laid down to the right side of the housing 501 in its initial position, the wire cover 503 can be slid from the right side of the housing 501 toward the left side, with the wire lead-out port 513 disposed at the front, and can be locked to the housing 501. On the other hand, when the lever 505 is attached to the housing 501 in such a manner that the lever 505 is laid down to the left side of the housing 501 in its initial position, the wire cover 503 can be slid from the left side of the housing 501 toward the right side, with the wire lead-out port 513 disposed at the front, and can be locked to the housing 501.
Here, when the lever 505 is attached to the housing 501 in such a manner that the lever 505 is laid down to the right side of the housing 501 as shown in FIG. 12, there is a possibility that the wire cover 503 may be attached in a wrong manner, that is, the wire cover 503 may be slid in a direction of arrow E from the left side of the housing 501 to the right side, with the wire lead-out port 513 disposed at the front as shown in FIG. 15. In this case, when the lock projections 517 (see FIG. 14) formed respectively at the sliding claws 515 are fitted respectively into the second lock recesses 509b (see FIG. 13) to thereby lock the wire cover 503 to the housing 501, there is encountered a problem that the direction of attaching of the wire cover 503 is reverse to the intended direction, and therefore the direction of leading-out of wires is reverse to the intended direction.
To avoid this problem, the lever-type connector 500 is provided with lock prevention means 519. The lock prevention means 519 includes a pair of first projections 523 formed respectively at a pair of leg portions 521 of the lever 505, and a pair of second projections 525 formed at the wire cover 503 so as to abut respectively against the pair of first projections 523.
For example, when the wire cover 503 is slid from the left side of the housing 501 toward the right side, with the wire lead-out port 513 disposed at the front as shown in FIG. 15, the second projections 525 are brought into abutting engagement with the respective first projections 523, thereby preventing the lock projections 517 (formed respectively on the sliding claws 515) from fitting into the respective second lock recesses 509b, thus preventing the locking of the wire cover 503 relative to the housing 501.
In the lever-type connector 500, the lock prevention means 519 is thus provided at the lever 505 and the wire cover 503, and with this construction, when the wire cover 503 is wrongly attached to the housing 501 in the reverse direction, the lock projections 517 are prevented from fitting into the respective second lock recesses 509b, or the lock projections 517 are prevented from fitting into the respective first lock recesses 509a, and by doing so, the wire cover 503 is prevented from being locked to the housing 501 in the wrongly-attached condition.
In the above conventional lever-type connector 500, however, when the wire cover 503 is earlier attached to the housing 501 than the lever 505, the lever 505 can be pivotally moved even in the wrongly-attached condition. In addition, when the wire cover 503 disposed in the reverse direction is strongly slid in the attaching direction (the direction E), the pair of leg portions 521 and 521 of the lever 505 are opened or moved away from each other, and the first projections 523 slide respectively onto the second projections 525, so that the wire cover 503 can be slid, and in this case, also, the lever 505 can be pivotally moved in the wrongly-attached condition.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication Number 2006-344519